


What's in a Name?

by afullrevolution



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Academia, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Knitting, M/M, Professors, Slow Build, develops into something more, mostly human, no!fire, relatively painless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-25
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-26 21:10:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/654456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afullrevolution/pseuds/afullrevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My parents think we're partners" Derek told Stiles one evening over a late night of grading.<br/>"I would have said colleagues, but partners works,” was Stiles immediate reply.<br/>Derek waited, knowing that Stiles would figure it out.<br/>"Oh” was Stiles verbose second response. “And you didn't tell them that we … aren’t. Huh."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Lie

**Author's Note:**

> Rating for language and references to sex. Not beta'd.
> 
> So really an obvious trope. Overdone, commonly used, but I had a bad week and decided to have some fun with it. Because I like slow building relationships and things that work out.
> 
> Fun facts if you want to know - Derek and Stiles are both professors in environmental science at some university in California. There was no fire and Derek's family is very much alive. Important members include the mum, dad, and two sisters (Laura and Dani). Grandparents are referenced. 
> 
> It might matter to you that Stiles has a grandmother as well as a dad in this go of it. The grandmother may take up more space than originally intended and is loosely based on Strega Nonna. Which means that Stiles is a whole quarter Italian for this story - which is really unimportant for the most part.
> 
> Fun not fact - I actually couldn't decide whether or not they are all human, so I avoided referencing it. Depending on how you read it, the story changes a bit open. And may or may not change what Nonna is. I am still considering writing in Stiles as a hedge witch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grammar update 2013 Nov 9. Few sentences added for good measure.

Stiles and Derek met at a conference in Mexico City while working on their doctorates. They were both ridiculously in love with their projects and passionate about their work. During that strange week, it couldn’t have been said that they had much else in common, but shit, it was enough to kick off a rather intense friendship. 

It helped that Stiles thought Derek’s project was just _fascinating_ and spent the first evening of the conference plying him with questions while ordering continual refills for Derek’s drink. It didn't hurt that Stiles contacted Derek within days of returning state side to ask him yet another set of enthused questions. 

As it was, somehow or another, within months of meeting Stiles, Derek found himself in almost daily conversation with him. They argued over research, waxed poetic about their respective projects, and occasionally just told each other to get some fucking sleep already. It was just nice, really, to talk to someone just as invested in the whole academic thing. 

Their relationship would have likely stuck there, but as it happened, their fortunes took a curious turn after graduation. In a rather unexpected chain of events, both Derek and Stiles ended up at the same university. They had never expected when they first met that they would end up with neighboring labs. 

But it happened. 

And it meant that instead of spending long hours on Skype while they waited for results to process, they started spending the majority of their time together in person. It was an alarmingly easy transition.

Some people thought that meant things. Derek's family among them. Because whatever they saw in each other and however platonic their interactions, the escalation of their relationship led to some confusion on the part of Derek’s family. 

The end result was that Derek's large family became convinced that Stiles was quite a bit more than a colleague. 

The myriad members started asking about Stiles in every phone call. At Christmas they wanted a full description. Laura and Dani sat close and demanded “all the details,” prying from a confused Derek descriptions of Stiles' eyes and favorite color.

His father made a few muttered comments about them moving fast, that they had just started working together. But Laura swatted at him, beamed at Derek and talked about these things sometimes happening. 

Derek had agreed. These things did happen. People ended up at the same university sometimes. His mother was a Dean, it wasn't like they didn't know how academia worked. Dani nodded knowingly. 

Then Laura had visited Derek and told Stiles that she was “so glad Derek has someone like you.” Stiles had looked confused, slightly embarrassed, but said gamely that Derek was a great friend to him as well. When Laura was safely gone again, Stiles had slapped Derek on the back and told him that his family was intense. 

Derek had shrugged. What was there to say? They were.

All in all, Derek had assumed that his family just found Stiles more interesting than his work. That they focused on Stiles in order to have something to ask. That they weren't really all that fascinated by the details of research in microbiology or environmental science. He couldn't have said it was surprising. 

All said and told, it took Derek some time - months in fact - to realize that his family's intense interest stemmed from their firm (perhaps unshakable) belief that Stiles and he were _partners_ and not just, well, partners. 

The full extent of their assumptions only dawned on Derek when his mother told him it would be nice if Derek brought Stiles with him for a spring break visit. Specified that it was really long past time for the _whole_ family to meet him. Derek wondered why, but couldn't see why not. He assured his mother that he could ask Stiles if she felt that way about it. 

His mother told him that it was what she thought _he_ would want. She knew he was introverted, but really this was all a bit much.

It occurred to Derek then that his grandfather hadn't asked him in ages the usual "when you are going to meet a nice young man. Someone to balance you out." That his nosey, loud mouth grandfather had instead started talking about Stiles. Was winking and making noises about “that friend of his.” It suddenly made so much more sense. That metaphorical lightbulb had finally - if delayed - been illuminated.

But, for all that Derek finally clued into what was going on, his family never asked outright if Derek was actually _sleeping_ with Stiles. They never demanded a label for their relationship and Derek didn’t correct them, just let their heavy-handed innuendos keep sliding by. 

Privately, oh so quietly, he thought it would be too awkward at that point. Derek was just ever so slightly embarrassed to tell them that he had not, in any sense of actual fact, been in a committed relationship for the past seven months. Following a stunted sense of self-preservation (Derek's could imagine his sisters' wailing 'why nots'), Derek kept his mouth shut around his family and didn't tell Stiles. He informed his mother Stiles had plans to visit his own dad for spring break (it was true). It didn't matter, not really. 

Until it did. 

Because the situation came to a head with his mother’s demand that Stiles make his appearance at Derek’s side and finally meet the family for their big anniversary party. 

Which, while being only a tiny problem, put Derek into a terrible quandary. That stunted sense of self-preservation reared its ugly head and arguably led to one of the stupidest choices he had ever made. 

Instead finally correcting his parents, Derek determined that Stiles would be the easier person to work with. Perhaps the choice was made because Stiles was a single individual (and right there) instead of legion.

Which was why Derek sat there on an otherwise normal Wednesday night, staring at Stiles across the tops of their laptop screens. It certainly was the reason Derek suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, asked if Stiles "would consider us friends". Not his best conversational gambit he admitted to himself with a wince.

Stiles laughed, giggled a little. Reached across the desk, succeeded in sending a couple of highlighters rolling, and patted Derek’s shoulder. Said “Yeah, Derek. You know we are.” Then added in a rather affected tone that Derek should well know that. Derek was surely aware that within certain narrowly defined perimeters, Stiles would do just about anything for him. Derek had to be cognizant of just how _highly_ Stiles regarded him.

Derek was fairly certain that Stiles was taking the piss and glared at him for good measure. Told him in a flat voice in a bid to regain the upper hand “Given your endless regard for me, you should be willing to do me a favor.” 

"Of course you want a favor" Stiles replied with a nod. He absently picked up a stray pencil and started chewing on the end. "You know you wouldn't have asked about the friends thing if you didn't. But I reserve the right to refuse if it is too ... something," Stiles gesticulated generally into the space between them. Derek raised an eyebrow "I don't know man, whatever it is might be weird. Scott asks for some strange shit."

Derek frowned. Out of the three friends Stiles had maintained since high school, he had yet to meet Scott. Nonetheless, Derek didn't feel like he particularly liked him. Stiles had a tendency to vanish when Scott was around and reappear days later with a broad smile.

Derek squashed his reflections and decided his best bet was to be forthright. "My parents think we're partners."

"I would have said colleagues, but partners works,” was Stiles immediate reply, words slightly wet around the pencil.

Derek waited, knowing that Stiles would automatically be cycling through the alternate meanings to Derek’s statement, searching for possible scenarios that might have led to this moment. 

"Oh” was Stiles verbose second response. Derek smiled slightly, waited for the rest. The situation felt overwhelmingly absurd. “And you didn't tell them that we … aren’t … Huh." 

Stiles got that particular light in his eyes. The one that said he had started planning something. The one that usually meant Derek was going to end up doing something he hadn't anticipated. He braced himself.

Derek was right, even if this wasn't the time to gloat . 

Stiles slammed his hand down on the table, pencil still hanging from his mouth. "Alright then. I’m assuming, given your general interest in work, men, women, and dating, that you are asking me to play along." 

Derek nodded, relieved that he didn't have to say it, but gritted out "I’ll owe you." 

Stiles smiled evilly. It was his maniacal grin. The one that had let to that meandering meeting with a mad moose in Maine. "No, no. There will be no owing. Owing would get us both into trouble. I'd likely get drunk and ask for something stupid. And you detest asking for favors and hate owing people even more. So, I've got something better.

"I am guessing that this is going to be ongoing because once you get into this, I highly doubt you will try to untangle it. It won’t be worth the effort. It'll be too easy to just let it ride. So, here's the deal. I am going to be your _partner_ " (Stiles eyes sparkled as he stressed the word) "for your family and in return you'll play the role of loving boyfriend for mine. We can do the family function thing, get our respective loved ones off our backs. 

"Because let me tell you, my Nonna, she’s getting older. And she wants stories for her friends. It's not enough to brag that I’m a tenure track professor with his own lab, nope. Most decidedly not. Because she and her friends do not appreciate what microbes are. They do not. Although she has become very involved in her local save the pond efforts. Evidently she thinks that the pond forms a bond between us. Which is great, really, because it is always amusing to see the crones react to the fun facts I pass along for their posters. 

“Also - Let me tell you, if saving the world starts at home, then I am on my way. Because grandma now only buys organic and passes on tales of the horrors of growth hormones to all her friends. And that stitch'n'bitch club is powerful back home. 

"Not that anyone else has my Nonna’s skills. And she certainly doesn't think that I am going to succeed in averting humanity's continued and inevitable decline, because you know kids these days. But the shit I could tell you..."

Derek threw a paperclip at him. Derek had heard all about Stiles’ grandmother. You couldn't know Stiles long and not know who Nonna was. Because she and his dad were Stiles’ family. There were some others - a scattering of cousins and John's parents - but those two had raised him. Those two were the ones he screamed at on the phone because Nonna didn't feel like wearing her hearing aid today. 

"Right, right. So 'dating'" Stiles used finger quotes "each other will generally make both of our lives easier without really having to change anything. You won't owe me and I won't owe you. It'll be a mutual arrangement with benefits." Stiles snickered "pun fully intended. But, We already know each other well enough that we won't have to pretend much. Just throw in a bit of PDA. It'll be swell."

"Swell?"

"Shut it - I like the word and stand by my analysis." Stiles paused, leaned back in his chair, two legs lifting in the air. Derek cringed as the chair legs creaked and Stiles stared back at him considering. "But what brings this on now?"

Derek let his head fall against the table. 

Stiles tapped his pencil on his knee. "It's not a holiday. Summer is too far away, so that leaves either anniversaries of some kind or a death. Unless there is some strange family tradition?" 

"Parents' fortieth anniversary."

"Yeah, definitely the kind of thing you do _not_ want to show up to without an other. What with everyone thinking about the magic" the word required an excessive wiggling of fingers on Stiles' part "of successful relationships and such. Shit, the number of aunts who try to set one up." Stiles shook his head. "Well, lucky for you, you have a partner. Your one true love presumably. Everyone will think we’re perfect. A match for the romances of the century. I would say epic, but those are usually tragic. And there will be no swords, no fighting for my honor and definitely no magic potions. Because those are nasty."

Stiles rocked further back on his chair and fell to the floor with a crash.


	2. The List

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles plans their fake relationship. He just loves a good list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see notes from chapter one

That night Stiles demanded that Derek take him home. There were _things_ they needed to discuss for this relationship to work. For them not to give themselves away within moments. Derek snorted and told him that it had worked so far. 

Stiles disagreed. Explained to Derek at torturous length that it would be different in person. When Stiles stared going on about PDA, kissing, and sharing rooms, Derek threw up his hands and invited him home with a snort that Stiles would have come anyhow. Snorted a question about who was he to get in the way of one of Stiles plans? Derek was sure a list would be forthcoming. 

Stiles loved his lists and hypotheticals. 

Beside, Derek could admit that he didn’t know what he was getting into. He didn’t really have much in the way of personal experience after all. People thought Derek was pretty, but they didn't usually like him after continued exposure. He had only dated twice in high school and a bit in college. And, well, it had never gone smoothly. 

The men he’d gone out with had accused him of not listening (but shit were they boring) and of an unwillingness to communicate. Given that they had always asked him out, Derek didn’t particularly think that they had anything to complain about. He had never offered anything other than what he gave. 

In retrospect, Derek realized hat Stiles may have been the first person Derek had really told his parents about over an extended period of time. And look where that had gotten him. He determined to himself quietly that he would never again share so much information about a friend. Over sharing was dangerous.

Although, all in all, if nothing else this was certainly going to be an experience. Derek figured if it went to shit, his family would forgive him within the year. Stiles thought six months would have them feeling sorry for him, taking him back into their loving arms.

But then, if Stiles’ plans came to full fruition, Derek might never need to tell them. He could get by on a platonic friendship and enact a fake terrible, heartrending, consensual breakup if either one of them ever happened to meet anyone else. It’s not like their parental figures knew any of their colleagues. Their "relationship" would just stay in the family. 

Or, if Derek was really lucky, perhaps his parents would just assume that they’d grown apart. Derek would be perfectly willing to follow whatever story his family pulled from thin air.

As it was, Derek let Stiles into his flat. Where Stiles immediately stole a popsicle from Derek’s freezer and made himself comfortable on the couch, opening an online working document for Derek’s perusal. A typical evening really. 

Just, the list just didn’t contain the normal points of debate. Didn't outline various comic book character's individual strengths, didn't point out which new restaurant would be best for what. Didn't demonstrate why Derek was _wrong_ about some conclusion or another.

Instead of laying out tasks for writing their latest grant proposal, Stiles read him what he thought were the sticking points of appearing to have a successful, loving relationship, his words occasionally getting lost around the popsicle.

  1. PDA (Stiles included a rather long and descriptive litany of examples) - Stiles had _met_ Laura. She’d notice. Stiles assumed given Derek’s love of expression, they could get away with Stiles doing the touching. Derek was welcome to touch Stiles in any way he felt comfortable, but he really needed to avoid flinching. Flinching would be seen as weakness and requite words to patch over. Outright lies were to be avoided. Hard for them to remember and back each other on.
  2. Sharing beds – they’ve have to. Derek should accept that now or back out. That said, Stiles did think Derek should be warned that he moved in his sleep. Might kick Derek. Also - Derek was like as not to wake up with Stiles plastered to his side. Stiles thought he was perhaps somewhat coldblooded. Sought out heat while be slept. Was given to wiggling towards radiators and stealing blankets.
  3. Presents - Long-term-relationship-people did presents. Stiles would knit Derek a sweater. Derek should buy him a subscription to that new series of X-men comic with the all female line-up. Even as he placed the order, Derek told Stiles he could buy it himself, that he was clearly just in the relationship for the gifts. Stiles retaliated with a flying, soggy popsicle stick and declarations of being easy. It wasn’t his fault if Derek had never taken advantage. 
  4. Boyfriend drawer – Stiles wanted one. If Derek’s family came for a visit it would a clear sign of their loving connection. Their continued bond. They lasting adoration. Derek told him to suck a lemon. 



At the mention of lemons, Stiles blanched. “Parent presents” he hissed, poking Derek's leg with his toes. “We’ll have to get joint presents for our parents. I never know what to get my dad or Nonna. What am I supposed to get yours?” 

Derek shrugged. Said that he usually got them theater tickets. Stiles was less that impressed. That might work sometimes, he informed Derek loftily, but to always do it took out the mystery. They needed to mix it up on occasion. Did Derek’s parents like limoncello? Stiles would make them some. He nodded to himself, ignoring Derek’s look of surprised indignation. Stiles had never made him limoncello.

Derek took a moment to regret that Stiles no longer reacted to his contemptuous expressions. 

As it was, Stiles just shook his head at him, patted Derek on the head as he stood. He wandered back into the kitchen for another popsicle as he explained that Derek had to understand, if they were going to do this, they were going to do it right. Stiles was not going to be considered a bad partner, not by anyone. And particularly when this wasn’t real. He couldn’t loose points for something fake. That was just unacceptable. 

The night ended with Derek’s discovery that Stiles was serious about the sweater. He got the point when Stiles demanded he stand and let him take his measurements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Limoncello is a liquor made with lemons. It's usually really sweet. Can be made at home with a good grain alcohol or vodka, lemons, and sugar. Find your own recipes online. I'm not giving up family secrets. Particularly not when you can suck on a lemon drop and take a shot of vodka for the same effect.


	3. The Anniversary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles meets the _entire_ family.

As it was, Derek rolled into his parents’ driveway the day before their anniversary with Stiles in the passenger seat. In an attempt at reassurance as the people-covered-lawn stretched before them, he told Stiles that his family was predisposed to like him. Stiles snickered and announced dramatically that he was “prepared to be agreeable” as well. 

The smiles the gathered family members were giving Derek as he climbed out of the car unnerved him slightly. Made Derek feel as if he had finally found a pearl after eating a pathetic number of oysters, but made himself sick in the process. 

Derek's family was enormous all said and told. Not because any individual members had huge nuclear families, but because it was rare for someone to move far and they all joined in celebrations. It meant the house was overflowing with a collection of individuals who thought that they had rights regarding Derek. He thought he might be doomed. 

Within moments of their arrival, Derek’s sisters pulled Stiles across the room to meet grandpa and an aunt kept him from following in order to grill him on the "cute little number" he'd brought with him. She “wanted all the gossip on the fresh meat.”

Apparently, everyone was agreed that his relative lack of dating experience meant that they were entitled to give him advice. As Stiles stuck closer and closer to Derek’s side, they were regaled in the course of the evening with the stories of how each of the many partners, couples, and random others had met each other and become family. 

They seemed to all think it was a given that Stiles would become family too. Smirked when Stiles touched Derek’s shoulder in the course of the conversations, leaned into him. When they found out that Stiles had knit Derek a sweater, there was a moment of frenzy. Derek’s father cooed, his aunts simpered, and the old women drew Stiles into their circle, demanding patterns and tales of experiences. 

Even Laura, nosey, hypercritical Laura, thought it was sweet. Bought their relationship hook, line, and sinker. But Derek was willing to admit that the cards had been stacked in his favor. She had already thought he was dating the guy. 

And Dani, sweet little Dani. She thought Stiles was fantastic after talking with him at length about gender discrimination in comics. Clearly bonded with him over shared accounts of disappointment over DC’s decision to be ‘progressive’ by re-launching Alan Scott as gay. Dani had evidently placed bets Aquaman. Certainly and decidedly not that iteration of the Green Lantern. Stiles was all sympathy.

Still, it wasn't until Stiles showed up to the dinner in nicely tailored trousers that accented his ass, a dress shirt, and eyeliner, that Dani swore eternal allegiance and told Derek that he was never, ever to do anything horrible like break-up with Stiles. She declared that – despite having a sister – Stiles was the sister she had never had.

Derek wasn't sure how Stiles had quite captured Dani's “eternal adoration” until she explained unsolicited and at length that she had never had someone to really _Talk_ to about clothes and makeup before. Laura was all ... sporty … practically lived in her yoga pants, and their mother was a second wave feminist type. Did Derek understand what she meant? Derek assured her that he had in fact met their mother and knew more about Laura than he usually wanted to know. He had actually known them both longer than Dani had. 

All said and told, the evening was a whirlwind of family and Stiles that didn’t end until the horizon started to lighten. Derek wasn’t exactly sure how Stiles survived being passed from person to person and hugged by everyone.

But survive he did, even if when Derek half carried him into Dani’s room where they were being stashed on an air mattress, Stiles passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

It turned out that it was a good thing that Stiles liked to cuddle, that he had expected to wake up plastered to Derek, because the mattress leaked ever so slightly over the night. Just enough that Stiles would have been rolled into Derek's side regardless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alan Scott was the original Green Lantern. Last June, DC announced that they were releasing him as gay. Many, many people had thought it was going to be Aquaman. 
> 
> Also - Marvel really is doing a relaunch of an all female X-men team (scripted by Brian Wood and illustrated by Olivier Coipel).


	4. Oh! What a tangled web we weave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That in which things escalate and Nonna gets her first words in edgewise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title taken from Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
> 
> "Oh what a tangled web we weave,  
> When first we practise to deceive!"

And shit, but Stiles pulled off casual affection. Nothing excessive. Just leaning in, taking his hand, brushing his body against Derek’s in passing, and occasionally kissing him gently. As if it was what they did. Stiles kissed him like it was normal. 

By the end of the three days of festivity, Derek was getting used to it. Was learning to appreciate the feeling of Stiles leaning over the couch and kissing his forehead. He maybe even liked how Stiles’ lips felt as they touched his skin. 

But Derek didn't really put much thought into it. 

Didn't consider how after taking Stiles back to visit his family for a third time, their charade started slowly bleeding into their daily lives on campus. How Stiles started touching him absently. He never kissed Derek when they weren't with one of their families, but when they went with their colleagues for drinks, Stiles would sit slightly closer than he used to. 

And overall it worked. The weird, pseudo relationship he had with Stiles. It made it easier now to talk to his family when they assumed that Stiles was around to keep him socialized. It was simpler to pick up the phone and tell his family that everything was fine. Somehow, it made them stop worrying about him. Ended their fear of him growing old and dying alone. They might continue to lament his distance, that he was so far away, but they were happy for him now. Derek wasn’t entirely sure why a relationship as a couple was somehow better than a friendship, but his family was clearly convinced that it made a world of difference. 

But that still left the other side of the equation. Namely Stiles family. It came up as the term ended. When Stiles casually and with that terrifying gleam in his eyes told him that Summer Solstice was just a month away. Which evidently meant that they needed to figure out holidays. 

Derek suggested to Stiles that they could alternate Christmases. The proposition was evidently preposterous. Stiles laughed in his face. Let out gales of cackling sobs. 

When Stiles finally calmed down enough to speak, he told Derek that under no stretch of the imagination would they ever, ever celebrate Christmas in his home. Evidently Christmas was an atrocious bastardization of older, wiser traditions. 

These traditions of course dictated that gifts be exchanged during the year’s dead days. They demanded that plentiful alcohol and food be consumed (because who really wanted to be entirely sober without the sun). And of course said traditions were to be shared with loved ones. 

Christmas, however, was never to be celebrated. It was, after all just a poorly disguised conspiracy pushed by "the corporations” to bolster their profit lines. They were just trying to jack up their margins before the end of the calendar year. Hence – Stiles’ family did not celebrate Christmas. They celebrated something suspiciously like Christmas, just four days earlier. 

Derek had the distinct feeling that Stiles was quoting his Nonna, repeating a rant he had heard many times over the years. 

Stiles, when he finished his rant and finally finished howling in laughter, wiped the streams of tears from his face and informed Derek that they could celebrate the Solstices with his family and could go to Christmas festivities with Derek’s if he wanted. 

But – if Derek was agreeable – Stiles needed to let him family know. And the sooner the better at that. Because, unlike Derek’s family, Stiles’ family – all two of them – did not already firmly believe that they were a couple. Where Derek had simply not corrected a misunderstanding, Stiles had to lay a foundation. To actively lie. 

Derek was committed and agreeable.

Stiles chose to call that evening. Dramatically swept into the kitchen to make a "private call".

The phone call involved a very loud Stiles informing his Nonna first that no, no he was not dying. He didn’t need her to bail him out of jail. No, no. He knew that this was not the usual time to call, but did he need an excuse to call his Nonna? Derek could hear both ends of the conversation tinning from Stiles crappy cell phone.

Only then could he impart the information that he would be bringing _someone_ with him to Summer Solstice. 

There was a moment of silence on the other end, a second in which Derek wondered if the call had dropped. 

And then, oh, did Nonna had words for Stiles. Words telling him that it was _wonderful_ that her Stiles was bringing someone home. It was about time that they expanded the family. Stiles _knew_ that Nonna thought his job was fantastic, but it was _great_ that Stiles had someone to count on all the way out there in the middle of nowhere and separated form everyone he loved. Although she supposed not _everyone_ he loved any longer. Because he wouldn’t be bringing anyone to her house that he didn’t adore. Especially not all that distance. 

When Stiles told her that this great love of his was Derek, she was even more delighted. And got louder. Because friends into lovers. It was splendid that this wasn’t just a sudden thing. She was sure that they had things to talk about. 

Stiles head poked around the corner and he gave Derek a thumbs up as his grandmother went on.

\----

Derek learned a lot more about Stiles’ Nonna in the days leading up to the summer break. Things he need to remember. Things that, Stiles told him, were for his own good. 

Derek had long known that Stiles had been raised by his grandmother – his beloved Nonna – who was evidently the kind of woman one might have expected to wrestle bears in her youth because she "didn't take no nonsense from anyone and fuck you."

What Derek hadn't known was that she could also crochet a mean afghan. For Stiles, after school hours as a child had involved cookies and knitting needles in the living room where his grandmother's friends gathered for stitching and endless bitching. Because, as his Nonna had always said, “idle hands, shit, they’ll get you into all sorts of trouble. You especially Stiles."

Particularly given Stiles' myriad talents and limited attention span.

So Grandma kept him busy. She taught him a purl stitch and showed him how to change the oil in his car. Instructed him in the basics of electrical wiring and attempted to teach him gardening. 

The gardening part hadn't gone so well. Nonna sucked at gardening. Her lessons included dumping a packet of seeds onto some dirt and telling Stiles not to forget to water it. She bought him a window box full of fresh herbs and told him if he managed not to kill them, they would be useful for brews and dinner as well. 

She was "delighted and tickled pink" when he showed some minimal talent. 

Evidently, Stiles had needed to learn a range of skills because "you never knew some crazy fuck was going to set off a nuclear bomb." She had lived through the sixties, seen that films “War Games” and “Doctor Strange Love”. She firmly believed that "given that truth was stranger than fiction, you could guess what was coming".

She was certainly convinced she knew. Society was going to shit, had always been going to shit. Given that that wasn't likely to change in her lifetime, Stiles needed to be prepared for every eventuality. 

Nonna had also been the one to sit Stiles down when he was thirteen and explain what bisexuality meant. Told him that people would give him a hard time for it. That a lot of people didn't believe it was real. And told him in no uncertain terms that those people were morons of the first order who deserved to have their sleeves fall of at inconvenient moments. (Her curses tended to be curiously specific. And had a disturbing tendency to come true.)

But Stiles needed to know that it was ok. Alright. Really great actually. Some people just ticked that way. Sort of like some people changed into wolves on a full moon. It didn't mean anything other than an open mind regarding different people's relative physical appeal. That was all.

Even if people were shit heads about it. They weren't going to be able to survive what was coming anyhow. Not if they couldn't even understand that people were people and not just sex organs. 

His Nonna had added that whoever he chose, it would be wise for him to pick someone with strong arms, because she feared for Stiles’ talent for heavy lifting. He looked awfully like he might grow up gangly. 

She'd handed him books about self-discovery and told him he could be just whoever he damn well felt like being.

That night, Stiles' had heard her tell his father as much, inform him in one long breath that no family member of hers was ever going to be given sass by her son-in-law. It didn't mother fucking matter what he thought about it, her Stiles was just about exactly the human he was supposed to be. If John took issue with that, he could go fuck himself sidewise and suck on a lemon to boot. She would just take her Stiles away if that was how he felt about it. 

His dad hadn’t had a problem with it. He “really, really didn't”, he had said laughing. Had proceeded to call Stiles from where he had been perched at the top of the stairs (That night had brought with it the shocking realization that he needed to learn to creep better) and poured each of them a finger of his grandmother’s bathtub wine. Raised his glass to remembering that life didn't fall into the patterns a few deluded humans claimed were ‘normal’. That people were more than constructs. 

In short, Derek learned that she was a curious mixture if insanely practical and entirely fanciful. And that no matter how understanding Nonna was, that didn't stop her from being 93, a tough old biddy, and in want of a family expansion. 

Which, as Stiles explained to Derek, was why Stiles had agreed to this admittedly outrageous pact of theirs. 


	5. Office politics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek and Stiles had never really kept their home and work separate. It's hard to stop now.

Depending on what Derek thought he wanted from Stiles, he had perhaps become a little bit too relaxed. Hadn’t realized how comfortable they had become with each other. Just how often Stiles touched him in little ways. Ran his hand across Derek’s shoulder when he passed behind him. Smiled at him, touched his arm when he came into a room. 

Derek didn’t realize just how comfortable he had become with Stiles proximity until Erica was standing in the doorway to his lab, telling him that Stiles hadn’t gone home the night before. 

Derek looked at her in surprise, raised his eyebrows at her. He wasn't sure what it had to do with him.

“Oh, don’t give me that look lover boy” Erica said, shaking her head at him, tapping her long nails against the door jam. “And don't play dumb. Everybody in the sciences and at least half of the philosophy department know about you two and your secret relationship. And almost everyone assumes that you are both absurdly, steamingly passionate with one another behind closed doors. Gossip about you tends to run wild after you cart him away from happy hours.

“It’s your business, of course. And I don’t know whether you two keep things quiet in order to avoid office politics or on account of the fucking homophobes out there, but most of us think it’s just adorable how much you surreptitiously dote on him. You are terrible at hiding it Derek.

“But, whatever. Right now, you need to take him home and get him to bed. It’s already seven, which means that he has only dozed on his desk if at all in the last two days. That boy needs some sleep before he accidentally does something like put his sandwich into the autoclave again. We need that autoclave without sandwich parts. 

“So, do whatever you have to. Blow him, fuck him. I don’t care and I don’t want to know. Just take him away and make him sleep.” 

Derek didn’t know what to say. Decided it best to fall on back silence. Given how it made fools seem wise and all. Besides. He and Stiles hadn't discussed this. He didn't to commit Stiles to anything without consent. So, he simply stood up, trying to look mysterious, and followed Erica out of the lab. 

Under Erica’s approving gaze, Derek let himself into Stiles’ office without knocking. He expected her to leave then, assumed she had better places to be. Felt slightly unnerved when she planted herself in the doorway, watching closely. Derek bravely chose to ignore her and her red nails. There were, after all, a delicate set of moves he now needed to undertake to ensure success.

Repetitive testing had taught Derek that he couldn't approach the issue directly, couldn't just tell Stiles that it was time to go home and sleep. If he did, Stiles would invariably start in on how he just had to finish whatever it was. A sentence. A test. Compute a final line. 

With Erica's eyes on his back, Derek felt like he was exposing secrets when he told Stiles that he was hungry. Stiles blinked up at him, smiled like he was looking at a cookie - at his favorite thing in the world - and touched Derek’s arm. “Dude, yeah, I could eat. The words are starting to swim here. So it’s likely for the best. I think I went off topic in lecture today. You know, told them a whole bunch of shit that I’ll have to work into the test just to justify that lecture. But fuck, I’m hungry.” Stiles was standing, his joints popping. Derek fished his coat from under a pile of students’ papers while Stiles searched for his bag. 

It took until Stiles was headed toward the door, patting himself down for keys and wallet for him to notice Erica, to ask, started but not displeased, “Erica, my friend, you eating with us?” 

Erica smiled a slow smile, something that curled across her lips and reminded Derek of a cat with a small bird. “Oh no honey, I’m just making sure you get off ok.”

Stiles blinked at her, said a drawn out ‘ok’ and shrugged. “You know you are the light of my life” he told her “but I’m good.” Stiles smiled blearily at Derek. “Derek’s got me.” 

If pressed, Derek could admit that he could see how their colleagues just might think they were a couple.

\-----

The department secretary started booking rooms for them together at conferences. 

Stiles laughed the first time it happened. Grinned at Derek like this was one of the best jokes he’d heard in ages. Kept snorting into the glass of wine he never actually drank every time he caught Derek’s eye. 

A colleague mentioned the next day that it was nice that the two of them were finally out of the closet with their relationship. He backpedaled slightly, flushing, saying that it was, of course, their business. That they obviously weren’t … in the closet … or anything … regarding their sexuality - the colleague looked pointedly at Stiles’ bright rainbow tie - but with their relationship. The colleague backpedaled again. Added that of course! They had every right to be private. But, you know, they did good work together. He awkwardly clapped Stiles’ shoulder and said that the academy needed more people who were open about being themselves if things were going to really change. 

Stiles leaned into Derek when the guy shuffled away and whispered “I didn’t realize that we’d become a symbol. Never thought of myself as a guiding light really. An inspiration to the masses. I feel like perhaps we should start giving speeches about it.”

Derek didn’t really know what to say. He leaned on his maxims about silence and let Stiles decide for himself what Derek thought.

His lack of a stance didn't help him a week later. He definitely didn't know what to say in response to a student who showed up in Derek’s office to talk about her senior project. He knew what to say about her work, but the end of the talk left him reeling. The bit after she had thanked him for his advise and closed up her side-satchel, stood and headed to the door. Derek's thoughts had already begun to turn to other things when the student turned, flushed bright red, and told him that she “just wanted to also say thank you, Prof. Hale, for being so open about yourself". She added that knew Derek didn’t talk directly to them about his sexuality and relationship, but all the students knew about it. She thought the fact that he treated his partnership with Prof. Stillinski as completely normal made such a difference. That he was open about it, that they did all those little things. You know? It had given her the confidence she needed to open up to her parents. She ended with the less than articulate "Yeah, so, thank you” before she fled, still a bit red in the face. 

Derek felt he could wholly sympathize with her embarrassment. 

The other stuff he didn't get. He did not understand why people thought he and Stiles were so cute. Certainly couldn't comprehend how they had evidently become inspirational. When Stiles heard the story later that night over cartons of glass noodles ("Delicious see-through food Derek, love it"), he thought it was brilliant and took to occasionally holding Derek's hand on campus. Derek considered commenting, but stilled his tongue when Stiles started occasionally bringing him lunch. Lunch that included more than just cafeteria sandwiches. Discretion might be the better part of valor, but it didn't beat out a home cooked meal.


	6. Home again Home again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek meets Stiles half of the deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nonna had polio when she was a kid. Her physical health reflects the effects I see in my family.

From the moment she opened the door for them, blocking the entry with her walker even as she motioned them to come in, Nonna adored Derek. She was of the opinion that his eyebrows were hilarious and thought his hated of words just about the funniest thing she had ever heard. Clearly, Derek was a barrel of laughs. She told him so at length.

Derek in his turn thought being around her explained a lot about Stiles. Because from the moment he sat down at the coffee table with her for the Summer Solstice meal, she did not stop a constant stream of conversation. 

She told him that she thought it fantastic that he and Stiles were on their way to making a real difference with their work, even if it wasn't going to stop society's downfall. But that made it all the nicer that they had found each other before everything went to shit.

But believe you her, she had fallen for a bright young thing in her time, she knew how it was to look at someone and feel that rush of blood to your skin, to have your lips swell and pupils dilate. She might have never have married him, but mind you, she loved the shit out of that man. Even if he did up and leave her when he died. Not his fault, she supposed, sometimes bodies just stopped working. 

Which was why she was so happy Derek was such a healthy specimen. Had good arms. It came from being a werewolf she supposed. And all that triathlon shit he did. 

She just could not imagine wanting to do such a thing. She would personally rather take a hike. Because believe you her on this too, her Stiles had told her all about his activities and while she thought he would be better employed taking care of her Stiles than swimming, she could acknowledge he did need to keep up his strength. Stiles would keep anyone on their toes, after all, and it wouldn't do to fall behind.

But look at her doing all the talking, she wanted to know about him. 

(Derek blinked.)

Although, she really wouldn't mind if Derek and Stiles did take a hike together by themselves. She just couldn't get out now like she used to. Flaccid paralysis, he might be aware. She’d had polio ages ago. Back when she was five. 

Which was why she just didn’t get out as much. Hiking had become a bother. Derek would understand that with her old symptoms acting up, she just wasn't as mobile. And he wasn't to mind the duct-tape around her finger. She was perfectly fine, just dying was all. But the duct-tape did wonders, didn't he know?

She used to take Stiles hiking when he had been tiny to show him the world inches from his back yard. She might be a shit hand at gardening herself, but that was because nature damn well took care of it for her. Grow local, she always said. Better for the bugs anyhow. 

But she thought it would be nice if they went on a hike later and brought her a few pinecones and some fresh sage. Today would be best, you know, because one couldn't forget that it had to be gathered on the new moon. But then that shouldn’t be a problem for Derek. Given. You know.

And he wasn't to let Stiles drink straight apple juice. Stiles was always to cut it with water. That acid content was just too harsh for a human stomach. 

And he must always remember that it didn't really matter what the idiot humans might think about the pair of them, because we are all morons every one.

She had certainly had enough experience with that. Even her own, beloved but idiotic son-in-law (she gave a pointed glare at the Sheriff) didn't actually believe she was a witch. Hadn't really believed that the mother of his son and his son himself were either (she pointed surreptitiously at Stiles). What kind of stupid head doesn't realize that all those sweaters Stiles knit him were extra warm for a reason? He clearly didn't know his yarns. She supposed Derek had figured it out by now? She could tell the scarf Derek was wearing was Stiles' work after all. Derek _must_ have noticed how special it was.

 

\-----

The other - in Derek's opinion - less savory obligation of that summer visit was seeing Stiles’ old friends. Those “left over from high school” as Stiles put it. It had been Stiles’ initial intention to clue them in on the situation. After initially conning them. For a short laugh. To, you know, see their expressions. But, what was supposed to be a joke escalated out of the bounds of reasonability. 

Of the three, Lydia was the only one Derek had met before. She’s shown up at Stiles lab, looked Derek from head to toe, and informed him that she could see why Stiles was so happy. After pressing him to join him for dinner, she added that she could tell he was a like mind and that he should count his lucky stars she was in a different field. Because otherwise she would have had to crush him. Derek got the feeling it was supposed to be a compliment. Particularly when Stiles beamed brightly (Derek was eternally reminded of a carebear) at him later and told him that Lydia adored him. 

As it was, Lydia appeared to take it in stride when Stiles had, with an evil glint in his eyes announced to the three that he and Derek were seeing each other now. That they figured why the fuck not. Lydia had laughed, said it was perfectly reasonable. 

Scott, in contrast, was immediately furious with Stiles and glared at Derek. He was, evidently, appalled at the "callous heartlessness" that academia had led Stiles to. Stiles deserved the best and a "why the fuck not" was hardly the best. Derek could feel Stiles seething at his side, see the anger in his knuckles as Stiles batted his eyes. As he told Scott sarcastically that the only reason he was with Derek was that Scott was unable to get it up for him.

But Lydia, she narrowed her eyes at Scott and proceeded to chew him out. She told Scott in what was clearly an ongoing argument, that some people didn’t want to throw themselves off cliffs for their loves. He should stop with his impressions of Catherine from Wuthering Heights already and be happy for Stiles. Even if Stiles’ had chosen more of an Anne Elliot style romance. Some people didn’t want wild passion. Some people wanted compatibility mixed with sustainability. So Scott should put a damper on his self-righteous anger, redirect it toward that bitch of an ex-girlfriend of his, and apologize to Derek. 

There had been a terrible moment of silence, before Derek had broken in with “I think Stiles is really more of an Emma than an Anne Elliot. He never did the pining that Anne was wont to do.”

Lydia and Stiles looked at him stunned, before breaking into gales of laugher. 

And Jackson, Jackson closed the subject effectively by not giving a shit about it. While Lydia and Stiles calmed down, Jackson just told Derek that he was never to hurt Stiles or Jackson would make his life hell. After which, Jackson made it abundantly clear that he didn't think Derek was worth his time or attention. Changed the subject by turning to Stiles and demanding answers about Stiles' health and comments on the latest game. 

After that, there was just never a good moment to tell the three. Particularly not when Scott hugged Derek at the end of the evening and told him he was sorry for having been an ass. That he was glad to see Stiles so happy, even if their relationship wasn’t what Scott was looking for. 

Stiles told Derek as they walked back to Stiles' family home that he looked at them as being his personal scarecrow, tin-man, and lion. Because Lydia was a brain if ever there was one, Scott was all heart, and Jackson had to be king of everything he touched. Stiles had had dreams about it in high-school. Derek threw his head back and laughed, asked if that made Stiles Toto or the Wizard. Because he sure as hell wasn’t in a hurry to get home.

Stiles shook his head and told Derek he was disappointed in him. Stiles was Glinda, good Witch of the North. He had the dress, wand, and crown in his closet to prove it. Because that’s who he’d been for Halloween when he was a sophomore in high school. His Nonna had been so proud as she's sprinkled pink glitter across his face.

The same Nonna clearly approved of their smiles as they entered the house. Demanded a full account of what _those_ three were up to. Particularly as she suspected that Lydia was like as not to discover the base code of the universe and unravel it in her pursuit of knowledge. Nonna expected Stiles - and now Derek to - to do their level best to prevent that eventuality.

As for Scott, Nonna was of the opinion that he was just a tad jealous and Derek should just ignore him. That Argent girl would come around and make him happy again. In the meanwhile, Nonna would have Scott over for rainbow cookies after Stiles was gone and make him understand. Because who wasn’t happier with more rainbows in their life?

 

\-----

That evening, stashed in Stiles old room, Derek stretched out next to him and asked "You Nonna is…?"

Stiles whipped his face toward Derek, his gaze harsh, disapproving. "Are you trying to tell me something? Because you might want to watch your next words. No one says bad things about Nonna."

Derek raised a placating hand. “She just told me several times that … it was good my arms are strong."

Stiles relaxed next to him. "Ah, yeah, she's always been a bit ... concerned ... about my relative strength. Because, you know, when society as we know it crumbles, what else are we going to have other than our own two hands?"

"Is she serious?"

"Hard to tell. I don't think she was when I was little, it started as a game ... I think ... But it's become somewhat ingrained in the last couple of years. But whatever you do, don't tell her if you don't believe her. The seams of your shirt are like to start unraveling and your food go off. She has very mysterious powers."

“She is quite something.”

Stiles grinned at him, put his head on Derek’s shoulder “Dude, you’re preaching to the choir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that there will be one more chapter.
> 
> Rainbow cookies, for those of you who do not eat Italian pastries regularly, are layered cookies (often green, yellow, and red with chocolate on the top and a jam between the layers) that are simply delicious. Or they are in my opinion.
> 
> -And-  
> Texts referenced:
> 
>   * Jane Austen's _Persuasion_ and _Emma_
>   * Emily Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_
>   * L. Frank Baum's _Wizard of Oz_
> 



	7. It's in the title

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That in which Stiles and Derek reach a series of conclusions as things escalate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" comes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Even as friends, Stiles had occasionally dragged Derek out with the other members of their labs for dinner or drinks. They would laugh, share stories about their families, argue about new journal articles, as well as gossip generally. Had anyone heard about what happened in such and such a lab? Did everyone watch the landing of the mars rover? Had they seen the images of the storm front coming in? 

Since news of their … relationship … had spread, people – Stiles' friends Derek supposed – had started actively asking Derek to come along. Would mention that Stiles had already agreed. They all seemed to assume that if Stiles was coming, Derek would as well. 

Derek was willing to admit that their assumptions might just be reasonable. He never did say no. 

Which was why Derek was sitting in a dingy wooden booth, twisting a bottle of beer between his hands. Stiles was next to him, leaning against him and laughing at something someone across the table had said about the most recent of James Cameron’s dives. Derek had stopped paying attention to the conversation, lost instead in how Stiles felt pressed against his side. 

Leaving the bar, Stiles wove slightly as they walked, listed to the side and leaned against Derek as he told him some convoluted story about a sixth grade science project gone wrong. Something about propane torches and the speed of ignition. 

Derek guided Stiles back to Derek's apartment, helped him out of his jacket at the door. He knelt to remove Stiles' shoes when Stiles almost lost his balance hopping on one foot as he attempted to do it himself. Stiles laughed as Derek pulled off his shoes one after the other, put his hand on Derek’s head, fingers in his hair to keep himself upright. 

Derek got him to brush his teeth. Stiles insisted in return that Derek brush his teeth as well, because he had "to take care of Derek and Derek had to take care of him. They took care of each other. Did Derek _see_ that?" 

Derek maneuvered Stiles into his bedroom and pushed him down onto the bed. Tossed some of his old pajamas at him and told him to put them on. Stiles sat, leaning back on his arms and pouted at Derek, told him that moving was just too hard. 

Stiles insisted that if Derek was going to be such a stickler about the whole appropriate nighttime wear, then Derek could damn well help him with his shirt, and proceeded to let his body flop back onto Derek’s bed and slump into the duvets.

But Stiles watched Derek closely, a small smile on his lips as Derek peeled him loose from his clothes, working Stiles’ limp arms out of his sleeves and lifting him to tug them over his head. He heard Stiles gasp slightly as Derek unbuttoned his pants and slid them down. He giggled when Derek pushed his feet into the warm cotton pajama bottoms. Laughed out right when Derek’s fingers skated across Stiles’ sides as he tugged down the t-shirt. Chortled when he saw that Derek had just put him in his old, well-worn Wonder Woman shirt. Told Derek how _wonder_ ful he was. Derek smiled back, shook his head.

But Derek wondered. 

Considered what it would be like to kiss Stiles, really kiss him, as he rolled him over and tucked him under the covers, climbed in after him. Thought about the possibility of actually touching Stiles with intent as Stiles curled into his side and began to snore softly. Stiles always snored when he’d had something to drink. 

In the morning, Derek woke up to Stiles in his kitchen. He was working at the table while he waited for Derek, pancake batter prepped and at the side of the stove, apple juice on the table. 

Stiles looked up from his computer, from where he had pushed his own plate over. With a grin that said he really wasn’t sorry, Stiles apologized for drinking just a bit too much the night before. Derek grunted and joined him, poured himself a cup of tea from the pot already steeped on the table. Clutched the cup in his hands.

Stiles pushed a plate of cut fruit over to him and stood up. Lit the stove and hummed as he beat the batter again, waiting for the coconut fat to sizzle. He was still in the pajamas Derek had insisted on the night before, pants sitting low on Stiles’ hips, t-shirt hanging slightly loose even as the stylized ‘W’ swept across his chest. 

Derek powered up his own computer and stared at the screen as the smell of hot fat began to permeate the air. He looked up at Stiles, watched him doing a little dance next to the stove to whatever song was running through his head. He tried to get some work done as Stiles fried the pancakes, placed a stack of cakes that _might_ have been representative of four-leaf clovers on the table between them. Derek felt justified in his opinion when Stiles told Derek that he had earned them. That they were because Stiles was just so damned lucky to have him.

Stiles poured maple syrup across his own stack and went back to his computer. Derek watched him jab at his food, make imprecise cuts through multiple pancakes at a time and take too large of bites as he read through … whatever. Likely his daily dose of journal articles. 

It didn’t take long before Stiles looked up at him, grinned, and told Derek to just bloody well fucking let whatever it was on his tongue out of his mouth, else he wasn’t going to get any work done and Stiles could just _feel_ burn scars forming on his face from the force of Derek's gaze. 

So Derek asked. Suggested that they could. Well. Given how with their arrangement they weren’t seeing other people. Did Stiles ever consider just, adding more benefits to their friendship? 

Stiles narrowed his eyes and looked at Derek, studied his face. Derek stared right back. He was never one to question himself, just everyone else.

“You know,” Stiles finally said, tapping his finger against the table. “A rose by any other name.” He looked at the finger and wrinkled his nose, licked the syrup off the side of his hand, sucked it off his finger. “And you, I am betting,” he indicating his hand “are just as sweet.” 

Derek raised his eyebrows and Stiles grinned at him again, showing all of his teeth. “Did you want to try it out? See if we mix? Or did you want to think about it some more? ‘cause I’m game if you are.” 

Derek didn’t see the point in waiting. Not when Stiles looked so ridiculous in his t-shirt. 

 

\-----

After that it was easy to just add sex to the general pattern of their interactions. Derek would close up his computers bid his graduate students goodnight and then check to see if Stiles was still in the building. If he was, Derek would take him home. 

It wasn’t actually all that different from their patterns before they started regularly sleeping together. But, increasingly and more often than not, Stiles was still in his office when Derek appeared at his door. 

Except for Fridays, because Fridays were the day Stiles collected him, took him out for “fun food with friends.” 

And Tuesday lunch, which somehow had become a faculty lunch at the taco joint Stiles loved Claiming that their salsa was heavenly. 

It was a little weird, in Derek's opinion, because he was relatively sure that Tuesday lunch had started with just the two of them. He mentioned as much to Erica and she informed him that he would have to suck it up. He got enough alone time with Stiles off campus. The rest of them wanted a slice of their time as well.

As it was, the group rotated and fluctuated a bit, depending on deadlines and who was in country, but Stiles and Derek sat at the core. Derek got the strangest feeling that their colleagues considered him their friend. Not just a respected, if somewhat taciturn colleague. 

But, the point was, that Stiles was no longer just showing up, which he certainly still did on occasion. Derek was actively, interestedly taking him home five nights in seven. And Stiles was enthusiastically coming. In as many different meanings of the word as there were. Derek thought Stiles would have appreciated his pun.

Derek didn’t particularly enjoy those two nights in the week. Even if the greater half of the time Stiles appeared at his door in the course of the evening. Even so, Derek decidedly preferred it when Stiles was there. Or at the least, that he knew Stiles would be there. 

Which was how Derek came to the conclusion that he would really just prefer it if Stiles moved in. He thought Stiles agreed. All of his evidence supported him. 

Stiles' own apartment was particularly damning evidence. It was the same hovel Stiles had moved into ‘temporarily’ when he’d first gotten the job and still firmly believed that they would be firing him within days. Or, even more likely, that the university would tell Stiles it was a terrible, horrible, no good, practical joke. 

Derek had tried to convince Stiles to move once. In that he’d said “you could move”. Stiles had just laughed. Told him it wasn’t worth the bother, that he was rarely there anyhow.Derek could readily admit that was true (and considered the fact more evidence). 

When he had moved to the area, Stiles had selected an apartment that was only two blocks from Derek’s. Said that he wanted to be close to the only person he knew in the city. From the first, Stiles had spent more time in Derek's living room than at his own place. Within days of moving into his own apartment, he had just started showing up. First, it was with bags of groceries and comments about not having enough pots and pans just yet. But, Stiles kept appearing long after that excuse had sailed. He would show up and Derek would yank the door open without a word and the two would wander back into the living room. 

After they had started regularly sleeping together, Derek had tried to stay at Stiles’ place twice. Had in fact been the one who suggested it. There had been no food in the refrigerator and all signs in the bedroom suggested that Stiles was using it as a large, walk in closet. Even the coffee machine had had a layer of dust. 

Derek's own apartment did not have layers of dust, and Derek would swear he had not been the one to dust in months. But, he did keep it tidy with the exception of those spots Stiles had long since claimed. Those spots had stacks of papers and haphazard assortments of odds and ends. An extensive collection of highlighters that were decidedly not Derek’s was spread around the entire space, providing unexpected splashes of color in various drawers and behind many a book. 

Derek started looking over his apartment, wondering if changes would actually have to be made. He worried if it was big enough, if Stiles liked it. But then Stiles had been the one to pick the color for the living room when Derek had repainted the previous year. Had directed Derek in rearranging the furniture to ensure a decent flow of energy and had gifted him most of the art that hung on the walls. 

Granted, the giant Wonder Woman print was not one that Derek would have picked himself, but Stiles had shown up with it framed and a smirk across his face within a week of that morning with the pancakes. Derek had raised an eyebrow, but gotten out a hammer and nails as Stiles had made noises about proximity to the couch and the sweep of the room.

In the end, Derek settled with saying "I don't know if you need your own designated office space" while they were working together in bed, computers opened on their laps. 

Stiles stopped whatever game he was furiously playing in lieu of grading to look at Derek. “I have one of those on campus. I don’t need one here. If I did, then we’d have to move. Which we can consider someday, but I don't feel like going through that just now. But, I can start bringing the rest of my things over next weekend." He went back to his game and Derek felt curiously smug. 

Derek ended up carrying most of Stiles things up for him over the following two weeks. Derek had _arms_ , Stiles informed him. “Nonna had said so and Nonna is always right.” Stiles delegated himself the task of calling his landlord to break the lease. 

 

\-----

Derek thought it was all going rather well until his mother started asking about when they were going to move in together. Pointed out that it had been three years. Three years Derek! She told him that for people who claimed to be so environmentally minded, they seemed to be overlooking the fact that the most efficient way of cutting down on their carbon footprint was to move in together.

Derek changed the subject. 

She called Stiles instead. Derek could hear them chatter from where he stood in the kitchen throwing pasta into some boiling water. He listened to them talking about the “future” as Stiles knit, his feet up on the coffee table, grinning over at Derek now and again. 

Derek looked around the apartment, felt rather self-satisfied as he took in Nonna’s afghan spread across the back of the couch and the shelves organized into sections of science and fiction, with Derek's classics intermixed with Stiles' graphic novels and comics (Stiles swore there was a difference and Dani fervently agreed). 

That evening, after dinner, Stiles sat him down on the couch with hands folded in his lap and told Derek very solemnly that they should think about moving in together. Pointed out how much money they could save on rent. Informed Derek with a twinkle in his eye that he thought – just maybe – Stiles had Derek’s family’s approval. 

Now, did Derek think that he could actually talk to his family for once and tell them that they were already living together? Had been for months? Stiles understood that Derek didn’t like labels, found them grossly misleading and terrible imprecise, but Stiles thought that Derek could admit at least this much to his family. 

 

\-----

Derek took Stiles out to his favorite restaurant and pushed a wrapped package across the table. 

Stiles looked at it warily, picked it up, turned it over in his hands and demanded to know what was going on. 

Derek knew he looked self-conscious, felt the spots of color appear on his cheeks and chose to look at the ceiling instead of Stiles' suspicious glare. It was actually a really well designed ceiling. The carved lamps giving a rather warm look. 

Derek emptied his water. Waited for the waiter to refill his glass and then told Stiles that in all the nine years since they had met in Mexico, he realized he had never once managed to remember Stiles birthday. He thought that maybe they could agree that Derek could just take him out at some point over the year. To commemorate it. Because, it wasn’t that Derek didn’t care. He did. He just got wrapped up in work.

Stiles grinned at him across the table. Told him that he was a genius. That, as per usual, Stiles would be fine with it as long as he got to do the same. Stiles would add it to their relationship agreement. He then raised a glass to their "mutual appreciation of each others' births." 

That night, Stiles took Derek home and blew his mind.

 

\-----

Dani wanted to know when their anniversary was. Seemed to think that it was strange that they had been together for _ages_ but had never mentioned it. Stiles told her that dates were meaningless, what mattered was whether they were happy in the moment. 

Derek thought about that one for hours. When he had reached his own conclusions, he called out to Stiles and waited for him to appear out of the bedroom, laptop under his arm. “Is there anything that you want to change about all of this?” Derek gestured between the two of them. 

Stiles threw himself on the couch, set his laptop down on the coffee table. “No, I’m good. You?”

“It’s good.” Derek answered. He took Stiles’ hand in his and they stared for a moment at the wall. Wonder Woman smiled benevolently at them from her protective stance on the wall. 

Stiles sighed. “We are planning on sticking this out, aren’t we.” It wasn’t a question. “This is a relationship.”

Derek snorted. “You said it yourself – that it doesn’t really matter what we call it.”

“When did I say that?”

“The morning after I undressed you for the first time.”

“Ah. Right.” Stiles nodded. “The day I made you pancakes and you seduced me with the power of suggestion." Stiles pulled his hand from Derek's grasp and tucked Derek's arm around himself. "I was right you know. You are terribly sweet.”

**Author's Note:**

> And - if you notice mistakes, feel free to tell me what they are.


End file.
